Sunday, July 29, 2012

Karel Rodkovský started composing Bohemian direct mates after retirement and published his first work in 1953 in "Lidové demokracii", whose problem column was then edited by Emil Palkoska.
Some of his games played in the Blansko tourney 1902 and in Prague 1900, as well as a few problems of his, can be found on jmss.chess.cz.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Marcel Duchamp is considered as a very notable artist of the 20th century. His peculiarity, beyond his unconventional thought and subversive actions, was that he was so infatuated with the game of chess that he almost completely excluded artistic activities. His chess games can be played on chessgames.com.
One of his most famous quote about the subject, and the more relevant for chess composers, is the following:

"The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. ... I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists."

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Ludwig Bledow was a chess player and the founder of the German magazine "Schachzeitung der Berliner Schachgesellschaft" which later became "Deutsche Schachzeitung". He compiled Stamma's works in "Stammas hundert Endspiele".
In 2006 Jeremy P. Spinrad wrote an article on Chess Cafe about Ludwig Bledow : you may read it here http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad11.pdf
He also composed a few problems:

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Benjamin S. Wash composed direct mates. According to die Schwalbe, April 2006 A.C. White wrote in 1942 that Benjamin Wash had composed more than 1,000 problems. However White had lost the volume where these problems were recorded and only a small amount of those could be reconstructed. The remaining problems are good enough to make one wonder about the scope of Wash's works.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Arthur John Roycroft (25-07-1929) British composer and Honorary Master of the FIDE for Chess Compositions

John Roycroft, 1999

John Roycroft is an endgame study composer and International Judge. He founded the studies magazine End Game (EG) in 1965. He has composed little, but has written more: for instance "Test Tube Chess" (1972) revised as "The Chess Endgame Study" (1981), one of the best book about endgame studies.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Théodore Herlin published his first problem in 1845 and until 1860 all his originals were published under the name of "L'Anonyme de Lille". He was noticed and is still remembered for his strategic problems and especially for the Herlin ambush.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Philip Klett was renowned for composing extremely hard to solve problems, often with hidden zugzwang and many variations. He composed direct mates.
In 1878 he published "P. Klett Schachprobleme. Mit einer Einführung in die Theorie des Schachproblems" including 112 problems. It can be downloaded and read from here. The book was reissued 100 years later by John D. Beasley as "A Selection of Chess Problems by Philip Klett, with a solving commentary" (British Chess Magazine, 1978).

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Johannes Kohtz met Carl Kockelkorn when they were still pupils and they engaged in chess composition. They published their first problem when they both were 17. Kohtz and Kockelkorn published their book "Das Indische Problem" in 1903 and "Zur Kenntnis des Schachproblems", a compilation of Bayersdorfer's problems, in 1902.
Even after the death of his close friend Kockelkorn on July 16, 1914, Kohtz still published his problems under both authors names. (source: Wikipedia).

He created the famous Roman theme with Carl Kockelkorn.
"A good defence to a threat is eliminated (usually by means of a foreplan) and a bad defence by the same unit (not previously available) is introduced."

Sunday, July 15, 2012

August von Cywinski de Puchala composed direct mates. Ralf Krätschmer quotes Kohtz & Kockelkorn, who wrote in their book "Das indische Problem" in 1903: "Wir halten ihn für einen der größten Schachstrategen" [We consider him as one of the greatest chess strategist] while Walther von Holzhausen thought he was the most significant foreplan master of the early period ("als den bedeutendsten Vorplan-Meister der Frühzeit").

Saturday, July 14, 2012

János Jakab Löwenthal was an excellent chess player who played against Morphy in two matches and wrote the compilation "Morphy's Games of Chess". He also occasionally composed some trifles such as this one:

Monday, July 9, 2012

Otto Wurzburg was the nephew of W.A.Shinkman. He composed more than 1200 problems in 3 or more moves. He gave his name to a form of the Plachutta theme, the Wurzburg-Plachutta, whose definition was explained by Emmanuel Manolas on his blog.
Edgar Holladay compiled 200 of his problems in "Wurzburg Artistry" (1974) and Valery Surkov proposed many of his problems with their solutions on his website [broken link].

Sunday, July 8, 2012

József Szén was a strong player and his strength deployed itself all the better in the endgame.

He discovered what is now called the Szén position, a defensive drawing position in K+R vs K+R+B endgame. "Szén's position is the most important for over-the-board players. Compared to the Philidor Position, the kings are not opposite each other and the defending rook can prevent checkmate. The position is a draw only if there is enough room for the defending king on the side with the rooks" (Wikipedia).

More info about Szén can be found on edochess.ca and on the blog of Impala Publications. James O'Fee quotes "The Oxford Companion to Chess" (1984) by Hooper and Whyld and we can thus learn that József Szén had discovered all the mysteries of the "Three Pawns Problem" (initial position wKd1, Pa2, b2, c2 vs bKe8, Pf7, g7, h7) when he played it against Saint Amand and other French players in 1836. The verdict is that whoever plays first wins, for instance 1 Ke2 Kd7 2 Kf3 Kc6 3 a4 h5 4 c4 f5 5 Kg3 Kb6 6 b4 g5 7 a5+ Ka7 8 c5 h4+ 9 Kh2 Kb8 10 b5 f4 11 Kg2 g4 12 Kg1 g3 13 Kg2 Kb7 14 b6 +- (White sets up the last of four successive zugzwangs after which Black can no longer hold up White's pawns.) 14 ... Kb8 15 a6 Kc8 16 c6 Kb8 17 a7+ Ka8 18 c7 +-
The solution was published in 1838 by G. Walker and the English problemist William Bone.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Cyril Dedrle was a Bohemian threemover composer. I.Mikan and F.Macek compiled Dedrle's works in 1974 in the 11th volume of the collection "Galerie československých skladatelů" (Gallery of Czech composers) which can be read here.